Ultimate Guide for NABH approved Signage Planning for your Hospital
This article promises you a 360 degree view on signages for your hospital. No matter on which stage your practice or hospital is growing, established looking to grow more or still in gestation take this article as your guide to signage planning and implementation.
Through this article you will know :
- What is accreditation?
- How signages are important for accreditation?
- What are signages?
- Why is it important for a hospital to have signages?
- 6 Step to plan Hospital Signage
- How to etch your brand image through signage communication?
- NABH’s protocol for Hospital Signage
- BCC Healthcare’s previous Signage works
How to get most out of this article?
- Read thoroughly and mark points that strike the right chord in you
- Tour your hospital around and evaluate you signage practice
- As you see you will be reminded of references and get inspiration from other renowned healthcare brands, note them down
- See how you can improve
- Write down immediately actionable steps to improve signage communication
- IMPLEMENT
Hospitals are undergoing a stage where every part the hospital is equally important as the others, be it state-of-art architecture or cutting edge equipments the aim is to make the hospital the best environment for cure and best source for care.
1. What is accreditation?
With the demand for quality healthcare services the need for accreditation also grew in the market.
Accreditation is not technically judging or certifying but it is more like analyzing different parameters of a hospital like:
- Quality assurance
- Medical ethics
- Prevention of medical error
- Evidence based medicine
The analytical, counseling and self-improvement dimensions to the process of accreditation
Accreditation can be classified into national and international accreditation standards.
The quality factor in hospitals has become the norm of the day, a lot of factors that can assess and reveal the quality factors of Hospitals have come like:
NABH: According to NABH’s official website The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) Standards is today the highest benchmark standard for hospital quality in India. National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation program for healthcare organizations.
NABL: According to NABL’s official website “NABL has been established with the objective of providing Government, Industry Associations and Industry in general with a scheme of Conformity Assessment Body’s accreditation which involves third-party assessment of the technical competence of testing including medical and calibration laboratories, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers.”
JCI Accreditation Assistance: The “Gold Standard in Global Healthcare”, Judged by a number of international medical experts in different fields within Healthcare. JCI sets the international standards for patient safety and quality assurance.
2. How signages are important for accreditation?
Signages for the most important factor in deciding the quality factor of a hospital because effective signages make a hospital
- More patient friendly
- Makes infrastructure more accessible
- Leaves no-one unattended
- Keeps patients informed about important things like: patient rights & duties, departments, doctors
- Prevents chaos and hassle management for hospital’s management through seamless navigation of people inside the hospital
3. What are signages?
Signages are the boards that you see in a hospital which are installed for the purpose of informing and guiding a person inside a hospital’s premises. Signages help one navigate through the hospital infrastructure seamlessly.
- How were signages used before?
Signages a decade or even half a decade ago were boards with bold lettering and nothing else. They carried no shades of the actual the healthcare brand’s personality. - What is the right way to use signages?
Signages should be tool that etches and re-instills the brand image along with the direct communication. Each installation should speak for itself, its quality assuring factor and brand promise.
4. Why is it important for a hospital to have signages?
Hospital infrastructure becomes more self-explanatory and reliable. People will not need any assistance in reaching their need inside your hospital if the signages are clear enough.
Even a 600 bedded hospital without proper signages will attract a lot of mishaps due to poor communication in hospital.
The very purpose of having a hospital is to serve people who are in need of healthcare solution from a healthcare provider, signages plays a role in that step where they have made the decision and reached you.
Now isn’t it your ardent duty to guide them at every inch when they have reached your premises to avail your healthcare promise. It is!
So the only way to make this happen without you overusing your human resource’s time on elementary hospital guidance is by installing great Signages that speak for themselves.
5. 6 Step to plan Hospital Signage
Planning to install Signage for your hospital takes more than allocating a certain piece of budget for it. It is a vital part of your interior planning activity and also your brand positioning or touchpoints planning inside your hospital.
Follow these 6 steps to arrive at a great interior for your hospital supported by appropriate signages.
- Bring along your team
- Include every department
- Call the experts of brand communication
- Decide on the variety, size
- Give equal importance to outdoor and indoor branding
- Connect interior branding plan to signages
6. How to etch your brand image through signage communication?
Signage is that part of any hospital that is most likely to be taken on a lighter note but has great significance in making an impact. Effective signage inside your hospital will enrich the quality of experience that you are promising to provide for both patients and visitors.
Signages carry more significance to them than just mere guiding a patient from one place to another. Good Signage carries a flavor of your brand throughout. There are signages that empower patients and express the brand promise of your healthcare brand.
Interior boards in a few hospital travels deep into narrating patient experience stories, such components are a vital part of interior branding and also your signage board planning.
Cutting edge medical equipments in a hospital need to be given the kind of attention and importance they deserve, if you have a 5Tesla CT scan in your hospital then tell your patients and visitors it you in a sophisticated way through effective signage branding.
7. NABH provides a set of protocol to be followed in signage for your hospital the whole set of rules with respect to signage can be brought down to two simple Do’s.
1) Readability
NABH standard for signage inside or outside the hospital building has to be legible and readable from a given distance. Signage should not have complicated font style or size as it decreases the readability or the ease of reading it is lost. Signage serves its best when the legibility level is the highest. When the meaning is not conveyed to the reader in a simple way signage’s purpose is defeated.
2) Bilingual The signage should be given in English and one regional language. Signages should not compromise on two languages compulsorily being a part of it. The majority of the patients/visitors or employees will belong to the local people or the other major part of the pie will be a mix of different linguistic roots. So, having he universal language and a convincing translation in a regional language is a must for any hospital signage.
8. BCC Healthcare’s previous Signage works:
We use the following materials to produce signages that fit our client’s expectations:
- Internal Signage as per any accreditation standards
- Acrylic Boards
- ACP Panels
- Foam Boards
- Wooden Boards
There are different types of signage:
- Internal & External Way finding
- Services listing signage
- Doctor Directory
- Availability & non availability of doctors with days/timings
- Patient safety
- Fire Safety
- Services for physically challenged
- Locating Lifts & Staircases
- Locating Public Utility Places
- Patient’s Rights & Responsibilities
- Service Areas
- No Entry Zones
We have rendered our signage service for various renowned healthcare organizations:
NABH Signage branding for Srushti
NABH Signage branding for Harini Gastro, Vijayawada
NABH Signage branding for Amrutha Fertility Center, Karimnagar
Conclusion…
Signage is an important part of your Hospital Branding or Interior planning process. A hospital without signages will fall short of serving its people in the best way possible also the form of Signages installed previously needs to be renewed as and when it’s out of trend.
A good signage will help better functioning of your hospital. Each part of your hospital infrastructure will become self-explanatory. Right blend of all the elements will improve the comfort levels of patients or visitors in your hospital. The usage of right signage inside the hospital simplifies life inside your hospital and makes every patient’s experience a hassle free one.